24Oct15

Al Qaeda operates in southern Helmand province

Foreign jihadists, including members of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
(AQIS), are training at facilities in southern Helmand province in Afghanistan.
The camps are used to prepare fighters to conduct attacks throughout
Southeast Asia, according to reports reviewed by The Long War Journal. The
discovery of the training centers in Baramcha, a town in southern Helmand
province, indicates that al Qaeda and affiliated groups are training in multiple
regions of Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, the US military raided two significant al Qaeda camps in
the neighboring province of Kandahar. One of the facilities was approximately
30 square miles in size, according to a US military spokesman.

But reporting in the Indian and Pakistani press indicates that the camps in
Kandahar are not the only ones where al Qaeda is training inside Afghanistan.
These same reports indicate that al Qaeda-linked groups, such as the Indian
Muhajideen and Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, are also training in the district of Dishu in
Baramcha.

The training facilities in Baramcha are likely tied to al Qaeda's relocation from
northern Pakistan into Afghanistan.

AQIS, which was established in September 2014, is the newest regional
branch of al Qaeda. It is led by Asim Umar, who was groomed by al Qaeda to
assume a leadership position, and includes jihadists from several established
groups in the region. The earliest plots conceived by AQIS focused on the
Pakistani military and other security forces, as well as American and Indian
interests.

Since the beginning of the year, Pakistani authorities have carried out multiple
raids against the group. However, according to Pakistani officials, AQIS has
relocated a significant portion of its operations into Helmand. The move by
AQIS was made in anticipation of the Pakistani military's Operation
Zarb-e-Azb, an offensive that began in June 2014. The offensive has targeted
al Qaeda and affiliated jihadist groups, including several from Central Asia.
Some of these same organizations have helped fuel the Taliban's advances in
Afghanistan this year.

In April, Pakistani officials announced that they had broken up an AQIS cell in
Karachi. However, a senior Pakistani counterterrorism official, Mohammed Arif
Hanif, said that the jihadist group was using Helmand as a hub for its
operations. "AQIS terrorists are provided assistance in Helmand from where
they travel to Chaman, Quetta, Shikarpur and Karachi," Hanif said, according
to Dawn. A young Bengali suicide bomber who had targeted Pakistani Rangers
had been traced back to Helmand, according to Pakistani officials. They added
that AQIS had "relocated from Waziristan to Helmand province."

In August, Dawn again reported that the Taliban was "sheltering" al Qaeda in
Helmand. "The bond between us and our Taliban brothers is a solid
ideological bond. They opted to lose their government and family members
just to protect us," Qari Abu Bakr, who works for As Sahab, al Qaeda's
propaganda arm, was quoted as saying. "There is no question of us moving
apart now after going through this war together. Our common enemy does
not know what is coming its way," he added.

Al Qaeda has announced its relocation out of northern Pakistan. Earlier this
month, an audio message featuring Hossam Abdul Raouf, a veteran al Qaeda
leader who is close to Ayman al Zawahiri, was released online. Al Qaeda has
"almost completely vacated Waziristan and Pakistan," Raouf said in the
recording. He explained that the "weight" of al Qaeda has been shifted to
Syria and Yemen, because that is where al Qaeda's efforts are most needed.
But it is clear that al Qaeda has relocated senior leaders, including perhaps
Raouf himself, to Afghanistan as well.

In July, the US killed Abu Khalil al Sudani, one of Osama bin Laden's and
Ayman al Zawahiri's closest compatriots, in an airstrike in Paktika province. In
October 2014, another veteran al Qaeda commander, Abu Bara al Kuwaiti,
perished in a US airstrike in Nangarhar province.

The training facilities in Baramcha are, therefore, almost certainly part of al
Qaeda's broader effort over the past few years to entrench its operations
inside Afghanistan once again.

Taliban control Dishu, training camps established

The conditions are ripe for al Qaeda and affiliated groups to train at camps in
Baramcha. The Afghan government admitted that the wider Dishu district is
under the control of the Taliban, The New York Times reported in June.

"[T]he rebels had established training centers in the Baramcha area of Dishu
district," the Afghan news agency said in February of that year.

The Taliban and al Qaeda have used Baramcha to host training facilities
because the town is located in the remote southern district and borders
Pakistan's Baluchistan province. The Afghan military and police find it difficult
to project power in the area, and jihadists can quickly cross the border into
Pakistan if threatened. The town is across the border from the Gerdi Jangal
refugee camp, where one of the Taliban's four regional military shuras is
based.

The US military noted in October 2010 that Baramcha was a key node for the
Taliban and "foreign fighters," a term the US military often uses to mean al
Qaeda.

"The area is a Taliban command and control area that consists of narcotics
trafficking, weapons and ammunition storage, improvised explosive device
factories, and foreign fighter training areas," the now-defunct International
Security Assistance Force noted in a press release announcing an operation to
clear the Taliban and allied jihadists from the town.

US Marines and Afghan troops ultimately cleared Baramcha, but after US
forces withdrew from the area in 2012, it quickly slipped back under the
Taliban's control, and the jihadists' camps were back in operation.

Jihadists train in Baramcha

The Pakistani and Indian press have identified several jihadists who have
passed through Baramcha for training over the past several years.

On Oct. 7, the Islamabad-based Daily Express reported that police captured
Saeedullah, "an important member of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent."
According to police, Saeedullah (AKA Rizwan Mullah, Choti Dunya), who was
arrested in Karachi, "confessed that he had received training from Amir Jawad
in Baramcha city of Afghanistan."

In April 2014, The Indian Express reported that two Pakistanis from Karachi,
Abdul Waleed Rind and Fahim, were recruited by Riyaz Bhatkal, who was
identified as the founder of the Indian Muhajideen. The two Pakistani
jihadists, who were captured inside India in March 2014 before they could
attack Indian soldiers, attended separate training camps in Baramcha.

"The training routine for Fahim and Waleed, even though they went
separately to different camps, was quite similar - a 15-21 day capsule with
three days dedicated to assembling and disassembling the AK-47, three days
to do the same with 9 mm pistols, two days on grenades and ways to throw
them," The Indian Express reported. "The remaining days were used for
physical training and endurance."

And in August 2015, The Friday Times, a Lahore-based publication, reported
that Abdul Kabeer Shakir, a leader in Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), is
"providing financial and other assistance" to "assassins" that are targeting
Pakistani Shiites. ASWJ is the new name for the radical anti-Shiite
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which is closely allied with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
and other Pakistani terrorist groups.

"A source in law enforcement said the people involved in sectarian killings
usually received training at a bordering village named Baramcha," The Friday
Times reported.

[Source: By Bill Roggio and Thomas Joscelyn, The Long War Journal, NJ,
24Oct15]

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